Fleeting Divinity
by Shojouri
Summary: Can a past that is forgotten become a future yet to save? She is the sand and the shore and the salty air, but she does not belong here. Oh Dagger where did you come from? I can see the sadness in your eyes. What robbed you of your memories?   For Asuka
1. Chapter 1

Authoress Note: I started this a year ago, got about halfway (notice the style change?) then gave up because I not only lacked inspiration but I couldnt make the plot fit! It annoyed me something chronic. But here it is! Expect more soon, as is fitting with my Nostalgia Challenge. The other chapters may be more fluid than this, but I wanted to show passing time, as the chapters will probably be kinda choppy time wise. Anyway, enjoy. :3

A/N2: I changed the name, Echo Of A Memory seemed somewhat...generic. So here I present: Divinty Fleeting. :3

* * *

_**Chapter One **_

Her head was bowed slightly, making her hair fall forward and hide majority of her face. Her hands were folded in her lap, and her eyes were staring at them hard. She was silent. It was unnerving how polite she was, I almost crashed the gummy because I spent so long scrutinizing her. "What's your name again?" I asked her, attempting to start a conversation. I already knew her name, but that girl needed to _talk_.

She tilted her head and more hair seemed to fall around her face, creating a veil for her to talk behind. "My name is Dagger." I frowned, she didn't give a lot of room for conversation, and I didnt want to talk her ear off. "I'm Sora" I said brightly, trying not to show how annoyed I was. I will never understand girls.

* * *

"Here, let me get that."

I looked over my shoulder and saw the fluffy kitten that was my best friend. Ok so Riku isn't a kitten, but his hair is just so damn fluffy. I think it's because I call him a kitten that he and Kairi are always joking that im in the closet gay. Which, so not true.

"I swear you didnt leave with this much." He said, giving me a level look. "You went shopping didn't you?" I went red, did he have to drag _that_ up? "No, but you haven't let me explain what the King wanted yet!" Riku headed another bag out of the cargo hold. "We don't have to babysit or something do we?"I laughed nervously, this wasn't going to go well. "Not exactly..."

"Sora..?" a timid voice spoke up behind us and I turned to see Dagger there in all her orange jumpsuited glory. A smiled warmly at her, though it did little to sooth her nerves. "Dagger, this is my friend Riku, he's going to help us get your memory back." She gave a small nod and I turned to Riku, who was looking at me with a hell of a lot of mixed emotions on his face.

This was going to take a while...

* * *

She just stood there, staring at the waves, her hands held behind her back and her clipped hair waving in the slight breeze. There was something about the perfect way she held herself, some sort of strength yet not shown. It was almost... Regal.

* * *

Hours become days...

Days become weeks...

Weeks become months...

And still...

**Nothing.

* * *

**

I couldn't say how long she had been here, time always seems to blur on the islands, what feels like moments could be hours, what feels like years could be a single moment. And she intensified it. Her very presence made all sense of time escape from its binds, sending us spiralling into conceptual twilight.

"Sora?" She calls to me, drawing me out of my own reverie only to flounder in the muddy depths of her eyes.

Kairi has made some progress with her, she no longer seeks refuge from the world. Instead she embraces it, I sometimes imagine her screaming at it in her strange speech, eyes ablaze, hair whipping around her face. She screams a cry of battle, of grief and discord. She battles the beasts with blood lust, claiming from them memories and dreams taken from her. She flies into the inferno, wings made of light bearing her over the decay of battle, dealing blow for blow, spell for spell, drenched in the stench of death and destruction and ash and holy. She urges herself to sanctuary, to arms so strong. To arms unknown. And then she calls me again, and I wonder why my daydreams have become so disturbing. But I see it, in those muddy pools. A glint of blood lust, like garnet droplets in her soul, seeking retribution.

Listen to me, I've started talking like she does.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Wow, the muse is really with me today :D However, I _do _feel like my head is being compressed , probably from wearing my headphones too long while writing lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and as ever this is dedicated to Asuka :3

_Lyrics to "Blind" are copyright of Placebo._

* * *

_**Chapter Two**_

Her porcelain brow was flawed only by the scrunched skin caused by her scowl of concentration. She chewed on her lip and kept her eyes screwed up shut. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the secret place, Kairi in front of her. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists and beads of sweat were grouping on her delicate skin.

"Reach out to them," Kairi's voice intoned, trying to guid Dagger into a trance "They are part of you, shattered and in need of repair. Only you can fix them, draw them back to you Dagger. Draw your memories back."

Riku and I stood in the entrance, watching as they worked. Kairi had a surprising affinity for the _Otherworld_. The place between life and death, dream and reality, conscious and subconscious. It was the twilight that lies on the very edge of a world, the line between the horizon and the sky. It seemed like we had tried this too many times, tried and failed.

"5 munny says she'll snap in ten minutes." Riku whispered to me under his breath, scratching the back oh his fluffy head and trying to look like he wasnt paying attention. I blinked up at him and turned back to Dagger. Her clenched fists, her thrown back shoulders, her legs, every inch of her was shaking. "10 says she'll be done before five." I whispered back, feeling a little more than guilty to be betting on that. After all, we were supposed to be helping her. I suppose, sometimes you need to make a little munny out of a bad situation.

I suppressed a sigh as she dug her teeth deeper into her bottom lip, drawing beads of blood like ruby droplets. They fell from her lip, staining her white peasant blouse with their rich colour. It turned brown on the fabric, drying. Like a twisted metaphor for memories that had dug their own graves and deserted her to survive without them. One treacherous bead of sweat navigated its way from her temple and down between her eyes, past her nose and around her mouth, to hang at the edge of her pointed chin.

Her eyes snapped open. The drop fell.

"I cannot!" She cried, jumping to her feet with a flourish. "Why do we still do this? It has been months, and I still cannot remember." She shook her hand, her hands making wild movements in the air out of frustration. Kairi looked up at her calmly, I could see from the sag of her shoulders that she was not smiling, would you be? "We are making progress Dagger," she said, her voice gently like rain "But it's gonna take time." Kairi shifted position, bringing her legs together and sitting on them "Come on, one more time?"

Dagger hesitated, one hand clenched in a fist over her chest, then her eyebrows knitted together and she shook her head again. "It is of no use!" She said, her voice cracking in desperation. All I could do was stand silently by the doorway. The scene had become all to familiar. Dagger and Kairi would sit down to try, they would spend hours there, trying to call out to memories that had abandoned Dagger. She would get frustrated, she would leave. Oh, here it came.

She held her head high, edging past Riku and I. I watched her leave, her hair swaying from the movement. I looked back at Kairi, she seemed downtrodden. "You can try again tomorrow" I said, as Riku walked over and coaxed her to her feet.

Kairi shook her head sadly at me. "She's right. It's not working."

"But..." I started, not wanting to think we could not help her. She was so happy when we weren't trying. Like she personified joy. But when she didn't know I was looking, I saw the sadness taint her eyes. The hollowness of her smile when she thought the world couldn't tell the difference.

"I'll start researching other ways tomorrow." Kairi said, matter of factly. I smiled at her, sometimes, she could really read my mind.

Riku sighed and threw a 10 munny bill at me. "Go on, she'll listen to you." He said, seeming a little miffed that he had lost. Kairi arched an eyebrow at the munny, clearly disapproving. I chose then to get out of there. Let Riku deal with her wrath. Anybody who hadn't been around Kairi during a particular time of the month would not know that she was _damn_ scary.

I wandered down to the beach and walked along. My hands behind my head in a way that was comfortable, kicking sand as I went. I hadn't realised how late it was, the tide was already at its highest, leaving me less than a foot of sand. The moon hung full and high in the midnight blue sky, almost mocking the night with its purity and light. I looked out to the sea's surface, pristine and calm.

I wished I could make it easier for Dagger. To bring back the memories and make her whole. I wanted to fill her every breath with meaning, make her feel wanted and safe. Yet, I also found myself wanting to be that meaning. If only I could tear her from the dark depths of amnesia and her own forgetful heart.

I was drawn out of my thoughts by her voice, cracked and broken and singing softly. I cast my eeys about, and they fell on her a way down the beach, crouched in the shallow of the tide, hair long dark hair dipping in the salty tide.

"_If I could tear you from the ceiling, Id freeze us both in time; And find a brand new way of seeing, your eyes forever glued to mine. Don't go and leave me. And please don't drive me blind "_

Her voice was eerie, haunting in its beauty. It seemed to swim all around me, flowing in an instrumental of ocean waves and rustling trees. I stood there transfixed, as her words floated to me on the breeze. I hadn't noticed she had stopped until she stood up, her body angled towards me as she gazed doefully at me. "Sora?" She said by way of question, cocking her head to one side, her bangs falling over her heart shaped face.

And then the roar of silence overtook us as the world seemed to fade away, and there was only us, eyes locked in an eternal question. She was beauty and light and grace and joy. And I didn't know it then, but I was bound by her soul, drawn to her tragedy. I was drowning in everything she was. She was Dagger, sharpest of edges and strength.

Like I said, what seems like years can last for mere moments here.

Our moment (even now it tastes so sweet on my lips to say it) was broken by something diving out of the darkness at me. I jumped backwards, dodging the shadow. We were no longer in the darkness of blue midnight, but in the darkness of evil, standing in a pool of tainted nature. Dagger screamed and I barely had time to think. Thinknig in battle led to your own downfall, it was always better to act on instinct. I lunged, calling the Keyblade with my soul, and swiped at the beast that had dared to go near her. After mere seconds, Dagger had collected herself and stood at my back, her staff in hand, her hair alive with the static of unformed mana.

They circled us then, sizing us up. We were like prey to them. Nothing more than hearts to collect. _Go ahead and try_ I thought, holding my keyblade at the ready. One lunged and I cut it down with ease. And another, and another. One went for Dagger and I saw out of the corner of my eye as she batted it away with a spell I didnt know. They were coming at us in groups now, and I lost Dagger as they separated us, driving us down separate sides of the beach. I felt my blood fill with the heat of battle, my stiff muscles setting into old rhythms as I struck them down, I grinned manically. I wasn't sure why.

I kept going, fighting them off, but even as I staggered, bruised and battered they kept coming, like demons spilling from a gate of hell. I could barely see for the mingles sweat and blood that dripped in my eyes. But I heard. I heard her.

Her scream was blood curdling and seemed to draw a corridor to her between the heartless, like parting a dark sea. I saw her fall to the ground in a heap, the scavenging bastards crawling all over her like demonic rats. I cried out, and ran to her, staggering in my condition. It was then that I saw her outline seemed to be glowing a crimson red. I threw myself towards her, ignoring the stinging and ache of my own flesh. I fell to my knees beside her, flinging heartless of her with my bare hands, keyblade forgotten amongst their numbers. Their dark hands clawed my battered body, begging for the hearts they so wished to consume. I clutched Daggers limp body to my chest, her eyes vacant and a strange hue of blue.

Then it came, a beast like no other, out of strange constellations in the sky. A dragon of fire and fury. It reared its horned head and gave an almighty cry, reptillian wings beating darkness away as it swooped over us, raining flame upon the sea of heartless. The heartless panicked, climbing beneath each other like maggots to hide themselves from the dragons fury. But it licked at them and they faded, drawn out of existance with an almighty magical blaze. Sent back to the hell they had escaped from. The beach was purified through fire, darkness burned away. I watched the beast as it flew back into its constellation, the stars flashing and blinking out as it did.

It was then that Riku and Kairi ran up, out of breath and confused. "What happened?" Kairi demanded. I merely shook my head at her, dumbfound, and stared down at Daggers prone body, her eyes closed now, breathing deeply as if asleep.

It was the next day that Dagger first remembered something. A name. A beast. Bahumat.


End file.
